Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Margaret Wente: The Refugee Tide Turns in Germany

"For years, Germans have been told by their elites that they desperately need migrants to subsidize their pensions, replenish their aging population and address a growing shortage of skilled workers. That would make sense if the migrants were a lot like Germans. But they’re not.Only a small number of the newcomers are well-educated professionals. Many more are illiterate, traumatized, children, or old. The majority are young men, with few skills and nothing to do. Almost none speak German. They are a poor fit with Germany’s highly skilled, rigidly structured labour market."

(Actually, the young men have lots of time for rape.)

"Their cultural values are a poor fit, too. As one editorial writer commented, “Ultra-religious Muslims – and Christians – are coming face to face with a society that is indifferent to religion. Newcomers with rigid moral codes must learn to deal with the fact that in Germany gay people can openly kiss each other.”

(Good luck with that.)

"The refugees are also a poor fit with one another. There are Muslims and Christians, Sunnis and Shiites, Kurds, Albanians and Kosovars. They bring their ethnic tensions with them. Clashes are common in the overcrowded refugee shelters. Police say that the task of reconciling refugee factions and protecting immigrants from right-wing German groups has pushed them to their limits."

"Not everyone will get asylum, of course. Large numbers of migrants from the Balkans are being told to go home. But nobody seems to have a plan for turning off the tap."